


So We Made Our Own Computer, Out Of Macaroni Pieces

by ArsenicArsonist (Fangtail528)



Category: Portal (Video Game), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Aizawa wont show up until way later btw, All the 1-a kids are stuck in aperture, Gen, Midoriya Izuku-centric, No Beta We Die like Impatient Writers, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Shinsou Hitoshi Replaces Mineta Minoru, and you get so much Content tm :), bc fuck mineta, i have like the bare minimum of plot planned out for this, mineta dies off screen, this is a portal au obviously, top that off with some good ol gradually fading amnesia, yall i have no idea what im doin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-11 22:56:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29750292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fangtail528/pseuds/ArsenicArsonist
Summary: When a bunch of UA examinees go missing the day of the entrance exam, the heroes are left scrambling trying to find them.Midoriya Izuku wakes up in a testing facility called 'Aperture Science.' But he doesn't know that's his name. All he knows is that hes probably not supposed to be here.
Relationships: Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead & Class 1-A
Comments: 20
Kudos: 50





	1. Amnesia Sure is (in)convenient, Huh?

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Take my Brain, or What Remains](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23929450) by [Deathlysilence](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deathlysilence/pseuds/Deathlysilence). 



> Yes I stole the song title from 'The Calulation' by Regina Spektor bc I was blanking on a title.  
> This fic takes place post portal 2! I haven't read/watched anything to do with halflife so anything that happened in that series isn’t going to apply really. This was brought up by a friend :) Anyways, this is what i'm writing while im waiting for my friend to finishing editing the next chapter of dragonspell hfgdhsjds  
> This is all just for fun tho! So i'm not really editing this at all. I'm just gonna post these as I write them with like, minimal editing, so please let me know of any glaring errors in the comments! thanks!

The first thing he noticed as the world came into focus was that the ground beneath him was cool. Not cold, but definitely not warm either. Just cool. He blinked groggily, and stared up at a white paneled ceiling. Sitting up, hand to his head, he noticed that all the walls around him were covered in a similar white paneling. Something about that didn’t feel right, but he couldn't quite figure out what about it didn’t seem right. His mind felt fuzzy, like someone had stuffed cotton in his brain, and he tried to remember where he’d last been. 

He couldn’t remember. Every time he reached for a memory, it felt like he was sliding off of glass, like it was there but he couldn’t actually grasp it. Something whispered that not being able to remember was a bad thing, and so he tried to remember anything else at all, but nothing yielded itself to him.

Before he had the chance to work himself into a panic, he heard a stilted, robotic voice. “Hello Test Subject 9-M-I. Welcome to the Aperture Science Testing Facility. When you have regained your bearings, please stand up and retrieve the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device and proceed through the door.” Aperture testing? Is that where he was? And was that his name? 9-MI? Something about that didn’t feel right though, but it was all he had to go off.

A glance around revealed what appeared to be a camera, a small podium with a device resting on top of it, and a shut circular door embedded in the wall. He assumed that whatever was resting on the podium was what the voice had told him to retrieve. 

Standing, he noticed he was wearing a pair of white boots, and an orange jumpsuit. Something about that also felt wrong, in the same way it felt when the voice had called him 9-MI, but he still wasn’t sure why exactly, so he shoved the feeling down. He could figure out why later. For now, he needed to figure out… something. Something more than what he had already figured out, at least. Probably. Yeah, that felt like the right thing to do. Figure out where he was, then worry about getting his memory back.

He walked over to the device on the podium, presumably the handheld portal device. It looked sturdy, and as he picked it up he could feel that it had some weight to it. Once he lifted it from the podium, the door opened, and the podium retracted into the ground. 

“Good. Now proceed through the door and begin testing with the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. Warning, do not look down the operational end of the device, and keep in mind that these tests, while designed with humans in mind, may result in injury and or death, and that caution should be used when handling the Portal Device. Good Luck.” 

As soon as 9-MI(?) stepped through the doorway, it shut behind him, leaving him in a room with several elevated platforms, and two large cubes. He just stood there for a moment, processing. What?

He looked down at the device in his hands. The voice said it made portals, right? He felt around for a trigger, hands fumbling around for a moment before finding two on underneath what appeared to be a hand guard? Why were there two? He decided that flipping one first was probably safe. He took aim at a wall and pulled one trigger. A brief recoil, and suddenly there was a pool of wobbling blue on the wall. He furrowed his brow. That didn’t seem right…

He aimed next to it, and pulled the other trigger. Instantly, the pool of blue on the wall settled into an image of… the room behind him? Surrounded by a swirling blue border. Looking over where he had fired the other trigger, he was a similar sight, but framed in orange.

It looked safe enough, so he decided to stick his arm through the one with the blue border. He watched as it appeared through the one with the orange border. He pulled his arm back out.

So it looked like that unless he had both portals open, neither would work, because he needed an input and an output portal. Okay, simple enough.

He looked over at the door on the opposite wall. It had dotted lines leading to a pair of orange X’s above it, and both of the lines came from the elevated platforms. ...Didn’t the voice say something about tests? Is that what this was? A Test? A glorified puzzle? He's pretty sure he’s good at puzzles. Yeah, that felt right.

It looked like he could probably get a portal above one of the platforms if he aimed properly.

He aimed and fired the gun, sending the orange portal above the platform. The first thing that was obvious was the gigantic red button on the ground. The second was that he had aimed a little too high and the portal was about 2 feet above the actual platform. Not the worst thing in the world. 

He squeezed his eyes shut as he hopped through the portal, hoping that like his arm, he would not be torn to bits. He heard a click noise as he landed. He opened his tightly shut eyes and saw that he had pushed the button down. Directly across the room from him was the other platform, and it also appeared to have a button on it. Looking over at the line, it was now a lit up blue as opposed to the orange it was previously, and where there had previously been an X there was now a checkmark.

Okay, so he just needed to press the buttons? Then what were the cubes for? Maybe the buttons didn’t stay pressed down?

That seemed like a safe bet. The cubes were probably to hold the buttons down, but they looked way too heavy to lift. Maybe he could just… He aimed the device and shot the orange portal onto the ceiling above the other button, and then shot the blue one near enough one of the cubes that hopefully it would fall through it. 

It worked, and one of the cubes fell through the portal and onto the red button. The other check turned blue, and the door opened! He fist pumped with a quiet ‘Yes!’ before realizing he still needed to get down. And also keep this button pushed down, assuming it didn’t stay like that.

He shot the orange portal on the wall next to him. The blue portal was still on the ground near the cube. He wondered if he could still go through the portal? He tried sticking his arm through the portal again. As soon as he did, he could feel the pull of gravity from a different direction, which was interesting. He pulled his arm back out. He could probably go through, but moving the portal to the wall would probably be easier, so he did that.

As soon as he stepped off the button, another click sounded, and the check changed back into an X. So he did guess right, they do need to be weighed down. He copied what he did with the first button and dropped the cube onto the button, and the door opened again. Nice.

“Congratulations Test Subject 9-MI! You have completed your first test. Please exit through the now open door and proceed to the elevator to continue testing. As a reminder, do not bring any unauthorized items through the Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grill, as it will be immediately destroyed.” Okay, so, door, elevator, and what? An emancipation grill? 

There was a… something? In the doorway. It looked like a laser field or something… Maybe that was what the voice was talking about? It said unauthorized items, and he doesn’t think anything he has is unauthorized considering it was all given or already on him when he woke up. And considering his luck with not losing his hands today, he might not lose a hand to this thing either. So he tried sticking his hand in, and miraculously, he did not lose his hand.

When he stepped all the way through the doorway, he felt the device in his hands shake a little. He looked back and saw that the portals that had been on the floor and ceiling were gone. Maybe the field had something to do with it?

Deciding to worry about it later (focus on figuring out what's going on, something is still wrong-) he turned back towards the hall. Further down there looked to be… an elevator? It looked like it was suspended in a clear tube but it had doors and a set of stairs leading to it. So probably the elevator. This is further proven when the doors open when he approaches.

He hesitated before stepping in. He's not sure exactly where this will take him. The voice had something about testing, and sure this one had been easy but it did say something earlier about the tests possibly resulting in injury or death. He can understand how, considering that if he was sticking an arm through a portal and changed the location it might cut his arm off, but he feels like there should be medical staff here to deal with that, right? 

And, why hadn’t they explained anything? Shouldn’t a testing facility explain what exactly they’re testing once they start? Or at least explain how to start? Something wasn’t adding up here…

Apparently, he’d been taking too long, because the voice spoke again. “Please proceed to the elevator to continue testing.” And the door behind him closed. Great.

...As afraid of what might come next as he was, there wasn’t much else to do. The only way he could go was forward, and in this case, the elevator. He stepped into the elevator hesitantly, and as soon as he was fully inside, the door closed and it zipped off.

He wondered what the next test would be.

\----------

9-MI had decided that tests, while interesting a lot of the time, were exhausting. He wasn’t exactly sure how long he had been doing them for, but it was long enough where he felt like he just wanted to lie down and not get up. Unfortunately, the last time he tried to do that, some little drone looking things came up from the floor and started shooting at him. Which wasn’t fun. He barely avoided getting hit by the bullets, but given that they didn’t damage the wall behind him, he’s willing to bet that they would have bruised at most.

So yeah, he had to keep testing.

He was riding in an elevator, catching his breath while he could. As it had slowly slid to a stop, he stood, portal device clutched in his hands. He had seen a number on the wall every time he left the elevator since that first test. It was counting up, and there was a slash with a 20 under it. 

As he stepped out of the elevator, the sign on the wall read 20/20. 

He let out a sigh of relief. He would be done soon.

\----------

When 9-MI finally stumbled his way through the exit door of the latest testing area (The floor was covered in acid! What!) he heard a voice come through the speakers.

“Congratulations on completing this set of tests.” It sounded… Different, though he wasn’t sure how he would explain it. Less like a pre-recorded tape or message and more one that was being put together as it went. And it just straight up sounded like an entirely different voice. 

“You will now be taken to the temporary relaxation and refreshments room to rest before your next set of tests. Please proceed to the elevator.”

He was too exhausted to do anything else. Several of the tests had involved sprinting, soaring through the air, and almost getting sick from rapid gravity switches. He's pretty sure he should have broken his legs several times from the heights he had fallen from. Maybe that's what the boots did, keeps whoever’s wearing them from breaking their legs.

He heard the elevator ding as it stopped. The door opened, revealing a tiny room that contained a small table with a glass of water and a bag of chips on it, and a bed.

As he stepped inside, the door shut behind him. He’d stopped being surprised about that after the dozenth time a door had closed behind him.

He wanted nothing more than to just flop into the bed, but something told him he should at least drink the water first. He wasn’t sure if he could actually stomach eating anything after falling and flipping like gravity was a suggestion. 

He set down the device on the table before he chugged the water. When he finished, he flopped on the bed, and stared at the ceiling. He ran over what he knew so far, from the tests and what the voice(s) had said. It wasn’t a very long list. 

He was in some kind of testing facility, and he was doing tests with a portal device. The tests had gradually gotten more dangerous as he got further into the set. His name(?) was 9-MI, according to the voice(s). There didn’t appear to be any other people in the facility.

He sighed, and sat up. He still didn’t feel up to eating anything, but he didn’t want to sleep with shoes on. Boots on? So he sat up and tried to take them off. 

They slid a little, but didn’t come off. That. That couldn’t be right. Why wouldn’t he be able to take them off? He tried sliding them up and down, investigating for a release button, anything, but they wouldn’t. Come. Off.

“It's like they were built around my legs.” The thought sounded silly but… He was flying around a gigantic indoor testing facility with a device that could make portals out of seemingly thin air, so it's not the furthest stretch.

Well. It looked like he would be sleeping in shoes. He hoped they didn’t mind dirty sheets, (not that the boots really got the chance to get dirty).

He got as comfortable as he could under the blanket (It felt light in comparison to- to what?) and tried to sleep.

\--------

9-MI hears the murmur of soft voices. “Not yet kid. Just keep going. You can’t give up yet…”

\--------

9-MI woke up again in a white room. The main difference this time was that he wasn’t alone. Someone else was standing over him, face blacked out from backlighting.

He startled, and accidentally collided foreheads, causing twin yelps of pain to come from both.

Apologies fell out of 9-MI’s mouth, “Oh gosh! I am so sorry!” 

The… girl? She looked like a girl (but he should probably ask at some point-) shook her head. “No no! It's my fault! I shouldn’t have startled you like that.” She stood, and stretched her hand down to him. “I’m… I think I’m 13-UO? That's what the voices from the speakers called me.” 

He nodded and took her hand, allowing her to pull him up. “The voices called me 9-MI. Though, I’m pretty sure that's not my real name.” Standing up, he got a better look at the girl. She had brown hair and eyes, and a distinctly round face with two pale pink circles on her upper cheeks. She was also wearing an orange jumpsuit, much like his, with a 13-UO printed onto the fabric.

Before 13-UO got the chance to respond, a voice sounded from the speakers. It sounded like the one that had congratulated him at the end of his last set of tests. “Good, you’re both awake now. You two will be participating in a series of cooperative tests together. These tests are not completable by a single person, so if either of you fail to cooperate, you will both likely perish to a rain of turret fire.” A Shiver went down both their spines. It's no surprise that the tests would be deadly, considering the literal pits of acid in his last test, but still. 

The voice continued as if nothing was wrong. “Test subject 9-MI, retrieve the portal device from the podium. Both of you would do well to begin the testing quickly. Good Luck.” 

Theres a beat of silence before the girl groans. “Ugggggghhhhh! More testing! Wasn’t the first 20 enough?” 9-MI can't help but snicker at her exaggerated response. Rather than moping around though, the girl just walked over to the still closed door. “Alright, let's get this over with. I’d rather not be shot at. At least testing should be more fun with a friend!” She somehow smiled brightly through her whole tirade. He couldn’t stop a smile from creeping onto his own face. It felt nice, just being around another person. He hadn’t realized how nice just having someone else to talk to could be.

He walked over to the podium off to his left and grabbed the portal device like he had the first time, his hands settling familiarly on it. He’d discovered very quickly the best way to hold it to keep from dropping it while falling from dizzying heights. The door opened as he did so, and they entered the testing room.

13-UO looked over at him curiously when they entered the room. He’d bet she had a question, but what about there were about a million different things.

So when she asked, “So, what's with the gun?” it's more than reasonable that he’d startled.

“G-gun?!” He exclaimed, “I don’t have a gun!!”

She tilted her head. “So what do you call that thing in your hands then? It sure looks like a fancy gun.”

He flushed. “It's a portal device. It shoots out portals.”

“Ha! So it is a gun!”

“I guess so. It could probably be decently dangerous if not used carefully…” Well, this got awkward. “Anyways, we should focus on the test. The sooner we are done, the sooner we can be... not doing tests again.” Wow, that wasn’t a horrible topic switch at all, great job 9-MI.

The girl seemed to understand though. “Yeah, okay. Let's wreck these tests!” She smiled infectiously. He couldn’t help but grin back.


	2. Why Are There So Many Pits?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Midoriya scares two separate people by jumping into a pit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo! so ive decided im gonna try and post a chapter or so a day as a writing exercise. Because theres literally bare minimum editing, this should be feasible. This fic is very heavily character interaction based and basically one big characterization practice. As such, im pretty sure im going to have every character show up at least once, though probably not all in 1on 1 interactions with mido.
> 
> Have fun reading!

“How are we supposed to get down? That must be a hundred foot drop!” 9-MI looked over at 13-UO curiously. This was the first time in the 4 or so tests they’d been confronted with having anything that required a large drop, surprisingly. He looked at the brunette and realized that she's not even wearing shoes, much less the weird boots. He's pretty sure the weird boots are what let him survive most of his falls, and not just that being the average, so she probably wouldn’t survive a fall that far.

“What was that about weird boots?” Wait, did he say that out loud? “I’ve been meaning to ask about that by the way! Why are you wearing those?”

“Ah, I can’t exactly take them off… I’m pretty sure they let me fall really far without getting hurt by it.” He hopped up a little to show how there wasn’t any extra bounce. “I think they absorb all the impact from the landing.”

“That's really cool! But that still doesn’t solve this pit problem. The cube is all the way on the other side!” She was right. The cube they needed was on the other side of the pit, which happened to also be much higher than he could shoot. Not to mention that the only portal surface in this room was the bottom of the pit. But… he thinks he’d done something similar in a previous test?

“I think momentum is preserved when I go through a portal so maybe I can…” He shot his portals on the bottom of the pit, one close and one next to the bottom of the other side, and then jumped.

He’d gotten plenty used to falling in his previous tests, but he could still hear 13-UO screaming as he fell. Whoops, probably should have warned her. 

As he fell through the portal, he felt gravity flip and struggled to right himself so he’d be able to grab the cube with the portal device as he passed. But surprisingly, whatever momentum he had gained in the fall wasn't enough to clear the height difference, and he started falling back before he even came close. 

He could feel something welling in his chest. How were they supposed to solve this when the only pit in the room wasn’t deep enough for him to go up?! He couldn’t make enough momentum when the ceiling wasn’t portable either, so how?!

He fell back through the portal and landed next to 13-UO, and found that not for the first time hes glad for these stupid boots.

“A little warning next time please! I thought you were gonna die!” Despite her tone, 13-UO looked worried rather than angry.

Which was weird, because there wasn’t much in this test that would be lethal, aside from him accidentally landing on his head or something. “Uh. I’ll try to remember to do that. Sorry.” 

The brunett put her hand on his shoulder and sagged in relief. “Seriously, that was scary…” She took her hand off him and stood again, and oh okay where did gravity go-

“9! You’re floating!” He looked down. That did, in fact, seem to be the case. He tried to shift back towards the ground again, but he just shifted mid-air. 

“Release!”

He dropped to the ground with a quiet click from his boots. “What was that?” 13-UO furrowed her brow.

“I think that… I did that? And then I remembered I had to…” She let out an excited gasp, “9! I remembered! I remembered something!” She was grinning brightly, clearly elated. “I can make things float!”

9-MI stared at her for a moment. “Wait, really?! That's so cool!” There was something about the idea of someone else having… what, super powers? That just felt right. “Do you think… maybe the voices knew you could do that?”

She put a hand to her chin. “Hmmm… maybe?” He gestured towards the pit.

“I can’t get enough momentum while falling in this pit from this height. So maybe if you float me high enough and drop me I’ll be able to get up to the cube?” Even if he wasn’t directly over the portal when he started falling, he could always move it. And he didn’t seem to be able to land anywhere but his feet anyways, so he’d probably be fine.

“I dunno… what if you miss the portal when you fall?” She looked on the fence, for some reason.

“I have my boots! Plus, I can always move the portal if I need to.” He held up the gun to emphasize his point.

“Well, lets try it I guess. What's the worst that could happen?” She tapped his arm with five fingers and he felt gravity vanish again. 13-UO pushed him lightly, and he felt himself drifting through the air. Pretty soon, he was level with the side of the pit with the cube on it.

“Alright, drop me!” Suddenly, the feeling of weightlessness was gone, and he was falling. As the ground got closer and closer, he aimed the gun and fired the blue portal underneath him. Gravity flipped, and he righted himself just in time to grab the cube as it was rapidly coming into view.

As he fell back through the portal, he realized that the portal he had shot was in the middle of the pit. Oops. When he reached the height of his flight a second time, he tossed the cube over towards where 13-UO and the red button were, and fired the orange portal closer to them. 

Annnd, stuck the landing, nice. Not like he had ever not stuck the landing. That probably would have resulted in broken bones. 

While he’d been falling through portals, it appeared that 13-UO had moved the cube onto the button. He was surprised for a moment, because those things were heavy, until he remembered she’d just figured out she could remove gravity from objects. So, less surprising. 

Regardless, the door was open, and no announcement had sounded. Great. The test wasn’t over. “You know, despite the fact that this would be way too short for a test, I was kind of hoping that would be it.” 

She snickered. “You and me both, 9.”

\---------

A lot of the tests after that one involved using both 13-UO’s ability to float things and the portal device to complete them. The voice had been correct in saying that if neither of them cooperated they would fail.

They were approaching the elevator after their 14th test when 13-UO asked unprompted, “I wonder if the reason I didn’t get one of those portal guns is because I can float things?”

A good question. “I mean, that seems like it would be right? But at the same time, you didn’t know you could do that until test 4.” He tilted his head. How did whoever was running the tests know she would remember she could make things float by then?

She nodded in agreement. “Yeah, weird huh? There's no way they could have predicted I would remember right then, and we would have been stuck.”

“Maybe when more of our memories come back we’ll remember how we got here? It's possible that it's someone’s quirk that's messing with our memories.”

“Someone’s quirk?”

“Yeah like a… super power…?” That felt right, calling them quirks, but where…? OH! “I remembered that! Superpowers, wherever we're from, they were called quirks!”

The girl lit up at the declaration of him remembering something, but scrunched her nose at the word after a moment. “Quirks? Really? Who came up with that?”

He shrugged with a bit of a frown. “I don’t remember anything other than the fact that they were called quirks.” The first elevator slid in front of them. 

They’d discovered after the first test that they were too small to fit more than one of them at a time. So there were always two elevators. So far, they’d ended up back in the same test, but there was always the threat that they would be separated and never see eachother again, but there wasn’t much they could do about it other than hope.

13-UO stepped into the first elevator. “Huh. Well, see you in the next test.” The unspoken ‘I hope’ was clear.

“See you in a bit.” The elevator shot away, and he stepped into his own.

\--------

13-UO groaned as she flopped against the wall in the new testing chamber. “How many more tests after this one again?” 9-MI looked at the freshly lit wall that had what he had eventually figured out were warnings, and the test number. It read 19/20.

“We’ve got one more after this. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. And it looks like this one is going to have acid, turrets, and giant pits again.” Another groan. He privately agreed with the sentiment.

She sat up, stretching. “I wonder if we’ll get to hang out after the tests are finished?”

He shrugged. “Maybe. It’d be nice if they did, but I'm pretty sure i’m going to be even more exhausted when we’re done. If I don’t just pass out I’d be surprised.” She snickered.

“How are you even still standing right now? You look more exhausted than I am!” She asked it almost jokingly, but he could see the concern hiding under her grin.

“Uh… Probably spite and not wanting to be shot at any more than needed? Anyways, we should finish this test before that happens.”

She smiled again, but it looked significantly more tired than her ones from earlier. “Alright, let's do this!”

“Try not to drop the cube in acid this time?”

“That was one time!” 

“Pfft-”

\--------

As they stepped onto the walkway to the elevator, the voice spoke through the speakers again. “Congratulations on completing this set of cooperative testing. Please take the elevators to the refreshment and relaxation center to recuperate.” 

Ah. This might be goodbye. 9-MI wasn’t sure how he felt about that. “...Hopefully we’ll see each other again?”

13-UO smiled shakily, but her eyes looked fierce. “We’ll definitely see each other again! That's a promise!” She held out her pinky.

A smile crept it's way onto his face. “Right!” He grabbed her pinky with his, and hoped.

\--------

This time, the room was much bigger, and had a hallway leading off it. Instead of just a bed and a table with water and chips on it, there were couches and low coffee tables, and some small rugs here and there. There was a small countertop off to the side with what looked to be chips and water on it. 

Before he could investigate the hall, he heard a rather loud shout of, “9-MI!” He spun around and saw 13-UO on one of the couches, a glass of water and some chips in front of her. She grinned brightly when he’d turned fully to face her.

“Ah! 13-UO!”

“Looks like we do get to hang out for a bit!” 

He could feel his face grinning to match. “I guess so!”

\--------

Eventually after they’d eaten some chips (very little, in 9-MI’s case. He still felt sick from rapidly spinning in the air-) and drank some water, they’d gone and explored the hallway. To their surprise, it was full of bedrooms. Or, presumably it was. They were both only able to open one door each. Most of them were locked when they tried to open them, and 9-MI tried not to get his hopes up at the idea of there being more people than just him and 13-UO here. 

The hall had about 10 doors on each side, and a locked door at the end of the hall. Maybe it was a storage closet?

Eventually, both him and 13-UO got tired and decided that sleeping would be a good idea. They promised again that they would see each other, and headed into their rooms to sleep.

His(?) room had a small white podium, and looked similar to the ones he had taken the portal gun off of before, so he figured that was as good a place as any to put it. The bed looked the same as the one in the last room.

He made a half-hearted attempt at pulling the boots off and once again had no luck, so he just laid down in the bed and ran through what he knew.

He was in the aperture science testing facility, doing tests. There were apparently other people, and one of them was named(?) 13-UO, and he was 9-MI. Their memories appeared to be slowly coming back. She had remembered she could make things float, and he had remembered that wherever they were from called superpowers ‘quirks’. The tests were sometimes done alone, and sometimes done with a partner. If you didn’t work with your partner, you couldn’t complete the tests.

It was more than last time, but he still had more questions than answers.

He drifted off under the thin blanket and hoped that tomorrow he wouldn’t be alone.

\-------

Whispers sounded from somewhere in the dark void of his dreams. “...Be careful, kid.”

\-------

9-MI woke up again on the cool floor of a testing room. Was it too much to ask that he woke up in the same place he fell asleep?

… Was someone snoring? He sat up and looked over to where he was pretty sure the snoring was coming from. There was a person there, though it didn’t appear to be 13-UO. It was someone with messy purple hair and eye-bags that looked like they could carry actual luggage they were so big. His jumpsuit read ‘7-SH’ in block black letters. He was splayed on the ground like it was the most comfortable mattress in the world, and 9-MI couldn’t help a snicker.

He wasn’t going to be the one to wake this guy up though. If he was exhausted enough to just sleep on the floor like that, he could probably use it. Plus, it’d be better if he wasn’t exhausted before they even started testing.

He stood up, noting that he was still wearing the boots as he did so. And if he guessed right… Yup, there was the portal gun. He stepped over as quietly as he could in the boots to grab it. The walls in here looked like they were portal surfaces so…

He shook his head to himself. He said he wasn’t going to wake the other kid up and he meant it, and the portal gun wasn’t quiet. Besides, there wasn’t any reason to use it in here anyways.

Another glance around revealed the familiar cameras on the walls. Great. Normally, he barely noticed the cameras, but they were everywhere in this place, which meant that someone was watching him. Considering this was most likely going to be the third set of tests, it was starting to occur to him that he, and subsequently everyone else he meets, were essentially lab rats. A shiver ran up his spine at the thought. He really didn’t want to spend the rest of his life running through dangerous tests.

A groan sounded from behind 9-MI, who spun around at the sound. 

The purple haired kid was sitting up, pressing his hand to his head like it ached. “Ugh, not this again…”

9-MI wasn’t exactly sure how to respond, or if he was even supposed to, so the first thing to fall out of his mouth was, “Uh… Hi?” 

The other kid had rapidly swiveled his head around to face him. “Oh, cool, I’m not alone again. You got a name?” 

What? “Uh, the voices on the speakers called me 9-MI, so that's just what I've been going with.” 

“Hmm… Alright, sure. You can call me Luggage.” The other kid stood from where he was on the ground, after that weird statement.

“Why ‘Luggage?’” 9-MI tilted his head. He supposed it was better than 7-SH, but how did he come up with ‘Luggage’ of all things?

Luggage shrugged. “I wouldn’t let the guy in the last room call me ‘Eye-bags,’ so he called me ‘Luggage’ instead. It's not much better, but it works.”

Before 9-MI could respond, the voice spoke from the speakers. “Now that you’ve finished introductions, please proceed to the Aperture Science Cooperative Testing Chamber. If you do not cooperate, you will fail. Good Luck.”

The door opened, and Luggage wrinkled his nose before heading forward. “Man, I hope this one doesn’t have acid. That stuff sucks.”

9-MI followed close behind. “Usually the tests with acid are later, if that makes you feel better.” They entered the testing room, and the door closed behind them. The first thing that was obvious were the giant pits and the cubes scattered around. There weren’t any obvious buttons, but there was a row of switch buttons by each of the pits.

Luggage’s brow furrowed at the sight. “... What's with the giant pits? None of the tests me and BK were doing had giant pits.”

“Oh, those are probably for me.” The green haired boy looked down one of the pits. There was a series of blue colored panels in the chasm that he knew from experience would bounce him off them if he landed on them. There didn’t appear to be a portal surface anywhere. Great.

“What do you mean by that? Anyone would die from falling in there!” Luggage gestured at the pits as if to emphasize his point. Did. Did neither of them have a portal gun in their test?

“No, we didn’t. What's a portal gun?” Shoot, he was mumbling again. 13-UO had mentioned he mumbled sometimes, and something… Something told him he wasn’t supposed to.

Luggage looked at him expectantly. Right, he still hadn’t explained anything yet. May as well explain his boots while he’s at it.

“Ah, these,” he gestured towards his boots, “seem to negate fall damage. And this,” he shakes the portal gun a little, “shoots portals! There's been a lot of pits in my tests.”

The other kid blinked. “What. How does that even work?” 

9-MI shrugged. “I wish I knew. The technology behind this is probably amazing!” He gave the portal gun a cursory look over, as if he could decipher its secrets without taking it apart. “My only issue is how often I almost drop it while falling. I really don’t wanna know what would happen if I dropped this thing.”

“Can you show me?” The purple haired boy had a barely veiled look of curiosity on his face. 9-MI couldn’t see the harm in a demonstration. The wall near the door appeared to be a portal surface, so he shot a portal on either side of the door. 

Luggage looked quietly impressed. He looked at the blue portal curiously, holding a hand close to it. “Can you go through them?”

“Yeah! Though going through portals in a different orientation, or ones on the floor, is kinda disorienting. Gravity flipping really fast tends to do that.” He demonstrated by shooting the orange portal onto the floor and hopping through the blue one. 

He popped out of the orange portal for a moment before falling back through the blue one on his feet, his stomach twisting uncomfortably. “Yup… Still super disorienting…”

Luggage snorted. “Dude, you are way too peppy for someone who looks like they’re about to throw up.”

He responded with clearly sarcastic cheer. “It’s a gift!”

When 9-MI finally stood again, they started on actually figuring out the puzzle. 

The green haired boy headed over to the row of switches. “Okay, so, if my hunch is right…” He hit a switch, and he heard the whirr of machinery coming from the pit, and the top blue panel moved out of the way for a few seconds before returning. So it was like that, huh?

He turned to Luggage. “I think you need to hit the switches in the right order so I can fall to the bottom. There's probably a portal surface down there that I can use to get back out.”

The purple haired boy wrinkled his nose. “But what if I mess up on the buttons? Won’t you hit those things?”

9-MI lifted his foot pointedly. 

“Oh, right, your magic boots. But wouldn’t you get stuck in between those panel things?” He stared pensively down at the blue panels.

The green haired boy stepped close to the edge of the pit. “No, the blue usually means I’ll bounce, see?” And he hopped down into the pit, hearing a yell of ‘9-MI!’ follow him as he hit the bottom. Then, predictably, he bounced. Right, he forgot to warn Luggage he was jumping. 13-UO told him to remember to do that and he’d forgotten.

As he slowed to a stop, he stretched his legs out to land back on the edge of the pit. “See? Im fine. Sorry, I should have warned you.” He scuffed a boot across the floor. 

The other boy looked part relieved, and part recovering from being terrified. Whoops.

The purple haired boy shook his head, as if clearing some thoughts. “It's- whatever, let’s just- let's just do this test. Please let me know when you’re going to do something like that again?”

9-MI nodded. “Yeah, sorry. I’ll try to remember. 13-UO asked the same thing, actually.” He probably shouldn’t become too used to the boots, now that he thinks about it. If he’s not wearing them and forgets… Yeah, that wouldn’t be pretty. 

Luggage nodded over to the buttons. “Alright, let's get this over with then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


	3. What Use is a Brainwashing Quirk in a Cooperative Test?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Midoriya and Shinsou become friends, and we catch a glimpse of someone who might become a problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Homework made this a bit of a rush to get through, so its a few hundred words shorter than the last chapter. Enjoy!

“I wonder why we’re doing these tests.” Luggage abruptly broke into the silent cooperation that had shown up following test 4. 

9-MI tilted his head towards Luggage as he aimed the portal gun. “Mmm… Well, 13-UO had some kind of superpower. Could be that they need a baseline?” 

“A bunch of amnesic teens though?” Luggage snarked.

“I mean, considering the timing of 13-UO remembering she could make things float, I wouldn’t be surprised if the amnesia was caused by a quirk as well.” He fired the orange portal onto the next platform they needed to get to before turning his full attention to the purple haired boy.

He tilted his head a little. “What's a ‘Quirk’?”

Right, that's what he remembered as the word for super powers earlier. He hadn’t even noticed he’d used it. “I remembered the word when 13-UO and I were talking about the amnesia. It basically means superpower. I think that's what we called them, wherever we’re from.”

Luggage put a hand to his chin and faced towards the blue portal. “Huh. Weird. Why would they purposefully give us amnesia though?”

The green haired boy shrugged and started towards the portal. “I mean, I can think of a few reasons, but only like 2 of them don’t point to something illegal.”

The taller boy stared after him for a moment before jogging behind him to follow. “Wait, what do you mean illegal? Like, specifically.”

“Like, kidnapping us and not wanting us to escape so they give us amnesia, or they did something to us and then gave us amnesia so we wouldn’t remember it, stuff like that.” He turned to face Luggage once they both passed through the portal to the next ledge.

His face looked like blank shock. “Wait, did that not occur to you?”

He shook his head. “No, I kinda just thought that… I dunno what I thought, just that we weren’t kidnapped or something. Jeez though, that makes a little too much sense.”

9-MI started looking around for the next platform for them to portal to, but continued talking. “It still doesn’t explain why they wanted us though.” He turned to the right and found the next platform. It was a little too high for him to shoot the portal at, so he started backing up.

“Yeah it doesn’t-” The purple haired boy cut himself off mid-sentence before asking, “Hey what's your favorite snack?!”  
The alarm that tinged his tone startled 9-MI into responding, “What?” And the world around him went dim and barely there.

There were… figures? On the edge of his vision, and he could feel himself walking forward, but was helpless to resist.

And just as suddenly, everything was back to normal. “...What just happened…?” He looked around confusedly, seeing he was standing in the middle of the ledge now. He could have sworn he was further back…

Luggage spoke from the side of him. “Uh. You said your last partner had super powers, right? I think we found mine.” He turned to face the other teen, and saw his brow was furrowed as he stared at his hands before looking 9-MI dead in the eyes, his nervousness palpable. “I think I can brainwash people if they answer my questions.”

The green haired boy blinked for a moment before lighting up. “Woah! Really?! That's so cool!”

The purple haired boy looked almost startled at the response. “Wait, you mean you’re not mad? I just brainwashed you.”

He blinked. “Why would I be mad? It’s not like you made me do anything bad. Though, I’m not exactly clear as to why you brainwashed me.”

The taller teen gestured at the pit full of acid below them. “I- You almost stepped over the edge.”

Another blink, and then a disbelieving glance over at the edge. “Seriously? Sheesh, thanks. I’d probably be dead otherwise. I wonder what the limits on your quirk are…?”

Luggage rubbed the back of his head. “I guess. And we’ll have to test it later? If there is a later, at least. For now, let's focus on finishing this test.”

9-MI looked down at the ground and flushed. “...About that. I'm a little too short to aim the shot for this next ledge.”

The tall boy blinked in disbelief. “Seriously?”

“...Yes.”

He shook his head. “Alright, hand me the stupid gun, I’ll fire it.” The green haired boy handed over the gun, pointing out the triggers as he did so. But when he attempted to fire it, nothing happened.

“What...? It was working just fine earlier,” The shorter boy took the gun back and fired it at a nearby wall, moving the orange portal. He stared down at the gun, confusion painted plainly on his face.

The purple haired boy had a hand up to his face as he considered the sight. “Maybe… Maybe it’s keyed to you or something?”

He looked up from the gun. “...Maybe? I guess it would force cooperation, if only one of us can use the portal gun.” He looked back over to where the next platform was. He still couldn’t see the next portal surface from his angle. “But I think me being just a little too short would have done that anyways. Can you give me a boost?”

Luggage blinked before shrugging. “Yeah, sure.”

\-------

Next time the silence was broken, it was because of 9-MI. “I wonder if the reason I’m the only one with the portal gun is because I don't have a superpower.”

Luggage looked over with a shrug. “Maybe? It didn’t look like BK had one either, but then again, I didn’t know I had one until a little while ago either.”

“By the way, what kinds of tests were you doing if neither of you had a portal gun?”

“Mostly like. Some time based puzzles, one where we had to sprint across a falling platform over a pit of acid, and I’m pretty sure there was a maze at some point?”

“Huh. Sounds very different from what me and 13-UO were doing.” He placed a cube on top of a button, hearing the confirming click that whatever it activated was, in fact, activated.

“Oh yeah, you mentioned pits right?” Speaking of pits, there was another one.

9-MI looked around to see if there was anything around the pit they could use to get past it. “Yeah, once she figured out her quirk, just about all the tests had pits in them.”

“Good thing you have those boots right?” The purple haired boy tapped his bare foot on the ground for emphasis. 

Ah, there was the exit! ...At the bottom of the pit. Full of acid. Great. “Yeah, I would’ve been a splat on the ground more than once without them.”

“Yikes dude.” There weren’t any portalable surfaces he could see down at the bottom of the pit either. There was a ledge though. Guess he was just going to have to jump.

He shot a portal on the nearest portalable surface that wasn’t in the pit. “Hey, I’m gonna jump,” And he took a few steps back to get a running start.

“Is there no other way down?”

“Not as far as-” And everything around him went fuzzy. He could feel himself moving and… Picking something up? And then the vague sensation of falling before everything snapped back into clarity and he felt the jolt of landing at the bottom of the pit..

“...Luggage.”

“...Yes?”

“Why am I carrying you bridal style?”

The purple haired teen, awkwardly folded over in the shorter teen’s arms flushed. “To be fair, I didn’t specify how to pick me up.”

It occurred to him that he should probably put the other boy down, so he did. It involved a lot of flailing from Luggage to get his feet under him. “...Not exactly what I meant, but interesting nonetheless. What I meant was why did you use your quirk on me?”

“There didn’t look to be a place you could portal to from up top.”

The shorter boy gestured at the now revealed portal surface, hidden under an overhang at the bottom of the pit.

“...Oh. Uh. Sorry…”

“No harm no foul my dude, but you don’t have to trick me into answering. It's like me jumping off stuff. It ultimately won't hurt anyone, but a little warning would be nice.”

He looked over to see Luggage nod, but his brow was furrowed. “I. Yeah, okay.” The other boy shook his head and walked over to the door. It slid open, and 9-MI followed him through.

\-------

They’d managed to finish the last test, which had ended up being a timed based sprint over a giant pit of acid, complete with one-shot button presses on tiny platforms and several portal-based saves.

Luggage collapsed on the nearest couch with a huff. “What was that even testing! How well we can not-die!?”

Honestly, 9-MI was still feeling a little winded himself, which had been surprising. Not many of his tests had involved flat out sprinting before that. “I could guess, but I’m guessing that's a rhetorical question?” He walked over to the counter with the water on it, fully intending to chug as glass before bringing one to the other teen in a jumpsuit still sprawled over the couch.

“Yes, it was, in fact, a rhetorical question. I don’t actually care.” He flipped over and places his arm over his eyes as the green haired boy finished chugging his glass of room-temperature water. “I simply wish to stop being dropped into various death-trap tests.” His tone was laced with sarcasm.

Before 9-MI got the chance to respond, a familiar voice broke into the conversation. “You and me both, buddy.”

The boy spun towards the new voice, and Luggage lifted his arm off his eyes and lifted his head to get a look at whoever had just entered. It was 13-UO! And… Someone else? Their hair was blonde and inexplicably spikey, and he had at some point shed the top jumpsuit layer for just the tanktop. He stalked in behind the brunette, a scowl plastered on his face. 

There was something about him that made some part of him scream ‘hide.’

“Hey, UFO, move it.” He pushed past her and made a beeline to the counter, chugged a glass of water, and then without saying anything else left down the hallway. The entire time, all three of the other teens in the room stared after him until they heard the final click of a door in the hall.

Luggage was the one to break the silence. “...UFO?”

13-UO tapped her fingers together as she smiled. “Ah! BK said that calling me ‘13-UO’ was, and I quote, ‘Stupid, and it takes too long to say, dumbass.’ Which, while he's not wrong, he could stand to be a little more polite about it.”

Luggage snickered and nodded in agreement. “Ah, yeah, BK did the same thing during our last set of tests. Tried to call me ‘Eye-bags’ and then switched to Luggage because I wouldn’t respond.”

“Ah! I can’t speak for you, but I don’t mind the nickname. Despite how rude he was about it, he had a genuinely good idea there.” Another finger tap. Maybe it had something to do with her quirk? Or a nervous tic?

9-MI hopped into the conversation with a question. “So you want to be called UFO now?” It did kind of match her quirk, and it didn’t seem particularly insulting…

She nodded brightly. “Yup!”

Luggage, still sprawled on the couch and having resumed his position from earlier beat him to the punch on responding. “Alright then. Hey, you’re the one who tested with 9-MI last time, right?”

“Yeah, why?” She walked over to the counter by the aforementioned teen. “By the way, hi 9-MI! It's nice to see that we both made it!”

“Ah, hello to you too.” He smiled and passed her a glass of water. After a moment, he remembered that he was going to grab one for Luggage too, and grabbed one.

“I wanted to ask about the pits? He mentioned there were a lot of pits in your tests. There were too many pits in ours, honestly, why-” Ah. 

The green haired tean walked over to him and handed the other teen his water when he looked over. “Luggage, did you have an actual question or did you just want to complain some more?”

He held up two fingers as he chugged the glass. Just complaining then.

UFO spoke up then. “Hey, at least you didn’t have to deal with BK trying to fight the turrets. Seriously, I'm surprised the guy didn’t lose an eye.”

Luggage snorted as he finished his glass. “He tried that again? He keeps acting like he could just destroy them with his bare hands. Idiot.”

This startled a snort out of 9-MI and got UFO to start laughing.

Well. This BK guy certainly sounds like a character. He wonders if they’re going to be paired up next?

\--------

Sitting in his room, staring at the tiled ceiling again, 9-MI once again listed what he knew about this place. It hadn’t really changed all that much since the last time.

He and some other kids were in the aperture science testing facility, doing gradually more dangerous and difficult tests. There were at least three other people besides him, maybe more. The three people he knew of were UFO, Luggage, and BK.

Everyone appeared to have amnesia, and memories appeared to be coming back in bits and pieces, but not all at the same rate. Two people out of the four of them had quirks. He was the only one with a portal device and weird boots. Two out of the three tests had been done with a partner, and the trend looked like it might continue. If you didn’t work with your partner, there was no way to complete the test.

He wondered if he would ever get out.

He drifted off to theories on what it would be like to not test every day. They felt less like theories and more like memories.

\--------

The whispers and mumbles were louder this time, more solid. “You need to keep going. Keep looking for a way out, kid…”

\--------

When 9-MI woke up on the cool floor of the testing room again, he wasn’t surprised. What he was surprised to hear was the enraged screaming from somewhere else in the room.

He sat up abruptly, staring over at BK, who was trying his damndest to rip the portal gun off the apparently very sturdy podium. There was the abrupt feeling of instinctive fear in his chest before it faded as the ridiculousness of the scene settled in. The screaming continued.

The green haired boy got up off the floor, a disbelieving look on his face.“Dude… What are you doing?”

The other boy barely spared him a glance as he continued trying to get at the portal gun. “Trying to get this fucking thing off the podium! It's clearly fucking important, otherwise why would it fucking be here!?” 

“I. BK, thats mine. It's a portal gun.”

“Haah!? Why would this stupid place give anything to you, Deku!?”

“‘Deku’?” The other boy abruptly went quiet and stopped trying to tear the gun off the podium.

“I. Where did that..? ‘Deku’..?” The blonde finally turned to face him, confusion plain on his face. “Why would I call anyone ‘Deku’? Especially when UFO was basically singing your praises yesterday, that was annoying…” Annnnd, okay, BK was clearly lost in thought. This was off to a great start.

Ignoring whatever crisis the other teen was having, he walked over and grabbed the portal gun. Thankfully, it was undamaged despite the furious yanking.

He turned to face BK, holding the portal gun in a tight grip. “I don’t know why you called me ‘Deku,’ but I don’t think I’m useless enough to deserve that as a nickname.”

Whatever confused haze BK was in, that snapped him out of it. “Haah!? We’ll see about that!”

Without acknowledging him further, the blonde stalked off towards the now open door. The voice chose this time to speak up.

“Reminder, please keep in mind that serious injury or death can occur in these tests. Failure to cooperate will make these tests impossible to complete. Good Luck.” Great. With that reminder hanging over his head, 9-MI followed after BK through the door and into the next testing chamber.

He had the sinking feeling this wasn’t going to go well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	4. Sheesh, People Sure Wanted to be Rude Today, Huh?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Midoriya deals with Bakugo, and Glados takes interest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Little late on the update today again, but here you go!

“DIE!”

The sounds of turrets firing and then screaming as they were presumably bowled over by BK resounded from just down the hall. This was the third test in a row that had turrets, and this was the third time the blonde had opted to just run in and smash through them instead of letting 9-MI disable them by dropping them through portals. He could emphasize with UFO and Luggage that dealing with BK was a bit of a headache.

The sound of turret fire finally ceased, and 9-MI turned the corner to the now familiar sight of BK stomping on the turrets and whole bullets scattered all over the floor. There was a portal surface behind where the turrets had been positioned.

“You know, if you didn’t run ahead, you could have avoided getting bruised by those things. I could have just shot a portal and let you get at them from behind.”

“Why bother! These things aren’t strong enough to even put a scratch on me! And like hell I’m letting you help me!” And that was the other thing, wasn’t it? BK absolutely refused any and all offers of help. Even when they weren’t really offers of help so much as actually needed to proceed. The green haired boy had ended up tossing him through a portal more than once to get him in or out of a pit.

BK was heavier than he looked, though it wasn’t all surprising, considering he was strong enough to lift the cubes. Those things were super heavy, and both UFO and Luggage had barely been able to shove them around on the floor. 9-MI was strong enough to lift them, but only just, so he stuck to carrying them with the portal gun.

Rather than arguing with BK that it wasn’t helping and simply keeping him from losing an eye though, he walked past him to the next part of the test. Another pit, this time with acid at the bottom and platforms placed at different heights. He could see the tell-tale laser sights of the turrets coming out of the wall. There were no portal surfaces in the pit. 

He sighed and shot a blue portal at the nearest wall at the top of the pit. “BK, I’m going to jump.” And he did, hopping down platform to platform, narrowly avoiding turret fire as he went. He's pretty sure that if the blonde had done this, his legs would have been splinters on the first fall. By the time he reached the bottom, he could only faintly hear BK’s screaming at the top of the pit over being left behind temporarily.

He looked around the bottom of the pit for a portal surface and spotted one right near the exit. Convenient. He fired the orange portal onto the wall, and looked through where he could see the other teen leaning over the pit and screaming profanities. Before he’d been paired with BK he hadn’t even known half these swears existed in the first place. He stepped out of the portal and behind the screaming teen.

“Hey.” At the greeting, the other boy started to spin around, but before he could scream some more about how the portals were cheating, 9-MI grabbed him and tossed him through the portal, stepping through himself and quickly shooting the blue portal next to the orange one at the bottom of the pit. He's not letting BK try and go back through like he did last time.

“FUCK YOU, YOU GREEN HAIRED BASTARD!” 9-MI just sighed. The other boy’s tendency to scream insults had thrown him off at first, but he could understand being pissed off after being bodily tossed through a portal.

Rather than acknowledging the insult, he turned towards the door. The camera, upon seeing both of them standing nearby, had activated and opened it. He stepped through, knowing that despite his temper, BK would eventually follow suit. Trying to convince him to come with him only made the other more stubborn.

\--------

9-MI was sorely tempted to scream into his hands. Explosions. Of course this kid’s quirk was explosions.

He wasn’t even sure why he was freaking out over it so badly. There was nothing in the testing areas before this that had exploded, there was no reason for him to be afraid. But he still instinctually flinched the first time he heard the miniature explosions come from the other’s palms. BK had been attacking some more turrets (he almost felt bad for them-) when there had been a spark and a small but resounding ‘Boom’ from his palms. Of course, rather than freaking out over this, he proceeded to use it to cover the turret’s metal casings in scorch marks. The smell of… something sweet, but burned, drifted down the hall, stronger with each small explosion.

And with each explosion, another flinch. Why?

\--------

They had finally finished the last test in the set, which was a relief. After BK had discovered his explosions, it had seemed like every test had some component that needed to be blown up to complete the test. BK had been delighted with this, while 9-MI had been considerably less so. He still wasn’t sure why the explosions made him flinch, but he’d come to the conclusion that it was probably an instinctual reaction. He wondered, if he spent more time around BK if it would go away?

...Something about the idea gave him the impression his flinching would get worse. He wasn’t sure why.

\--------

They had returned to the area with the couches. Following his pattern from last time, BK chugged a glass of water and headed straight to his room. At least 9-MI didn’t have to keep suppressing the full body flinches that had started every time the other boy turned towards him.

The room appeared to be empty, so 9-MI headed over to the counter to get his own glass of water. He wasn’t too bad off today, so he slowly sipped the water as he waited to see if UFO and Luggage made it. He was tired, but he was going to savour his time not in the testing chambers.

While he was waiting, he thought about his friends. Or rather, the set of numbers and letters they had been given. UFO had been assigned as 13-UO, and Luggage had been given 7-SH. He himself was 9-MI. He wasn’t sure about BK’s number, nobody had mentioned it, and the top of his jumpsuit had remained tied around his waist during the whole test set. Still, the numbers implied there were more of them, at least 13 of them. He wasn’t sure what to do with this information.

On the one hand, it meant it wasn’t just the four of them, there were other people. On the other, it meant there were more people trapped here, testing. And considering some of the tests, it was entirely possible some of them would die.

Before he could think on the subject further, he heard the sliding of the elevator and UFO stepped out into the room, looking exhausted and nauseous. He grabbed two glasses from the counter and headed over to the couch she was bee-lining for.

Luggage stepped into the room moments after the brunette reached and flopped on the couch, looking similarly exhausted and nauseous. “Well, good to see you’re both alive. Rough tests?”

UFO sat up just long enough to chug the water before flopping back in place with a groan. 

Luggage spoke up, sitting on the floor next to the couch pressing the only-slightly cool glass to his forehead. “You could say that. Without those boots of yours, pits are a pain.”

9-MI grimaced. “Yeah, I can see that. I'm guessing you guys used UFO’s quirk to get down?”

A muffled noise of assent sounded from where aforementioned person was face down on the couch. Luggage answered in more detail for her. “Yeah, apparently our quirks have drawbacks. her’s gives her nausea when she uses it on herself, not to mention repeatedly. I ended up having to use my own quirk to help her do it, and that apparently gives me headaches.”

The green haired boy kept frowning. “Yikes. That sounds awful. I'm sorry your tests made you two do that.”

Luggage waved him off. “Nothing we can do about it now, just have to deal. I'm assuming you were with BK this time?”

“Ah, yeah… He figured out his quirk.”

The purple haired boy raised an eyebrow. “Really? What was it?”

“He can make explosions from his palms.”

“... Well that explains why he thought he could fight the turrets with his bare hands. I’m guessing he did that in your tests too, by the way?” Luggage was starting to look a little less nauseous, but no less exhausted.

“Yeah. As soon as his explosions showed up there were more turrets too.”

“Yikes. How big are we talking for explosions here? Like, cube sized? Couch sized? Test room sized?”

“Uh… usually a little smaller than cube sized. The first ones weren’t strong enough to blow up the turrets, but they were later. I’m not sure if that was just because of unconscious hesitance or if he just improved that quickly.”

“...Well, let's hope he’s smart enough to not use it on any of us.”

A phantom tingle ran across 9-MI’s shoulders. “Yeah, me too.”

\--------

Another test set, another list of things he knew about this place. 

He and some other kids were in the aperture science testing facility, doing gradually more dangerous and difficult tests. The tests seemed to be designed specifically with testing whoever was taking the tests in mind. There were three other people he’d met, and if his theory was correct, there were at least 9 others. The three people were nicknamed UFO, Luggage, and BK.   
He silently grimaced. Every time he made that list, it got more worrying. Everything pointed to them essentially being lab rats, and he was pretty sure he didn’t like that idea.

He tried to distract himself with the boots he was wearing. He noticed he couldn’t put his heel flat on the ground, the weird strip of material forcing it back up.. It hadn’t really occurred to him to try, during the tests, but he wondered if maybe he fell from far enough the strip would bend under the force? Maybe it already had and he just hadn’t noticed.

… The boots looked remarkably unscuffed despite the intense activities in all the tests. He could have sworn the acid in that sprint with Luggage had done some damage. His outfit didn’t look damaged either, not even his sleeves, where some of the acid had splashed up from when UFO dropped the cube too early. It by all accounts didn’t make any sense, unless…

Either his outfit was being swapped out in his sleep, or it was fixing itself. He was going to hope it was the ‘fixing itself’ route rather than the other, because the idea of being undressed in his sleep was profoundly uncomfortable to think about.

Instead, he forced his mind to switch topics once again, this time to the other kids and their quirks. One could make things float, with a drawback of nausea if she used it on herself. Another could brainwash people with a question, but got headaches if he used it too much. And finally the last one could create explosions with his hands and smelled of burnt sugar in a way that was startlingly familiar. 

So far, the only kid who hadn’t shown signs of some kind of quirk was him, and the only kid who didn’t appear to have any drawbacks was the kid who made literal explosions with his hands. The kid that made 9-MI instinctually flinch every time he even glanced his way now. The kid who had acted violent and threatening even before figuring out his quirk. Yeah, he was really hoping the kid stayed more bark than bite. He’d rather not figure out how to deal with looking like that first set of turrets. Burns were painful.

Wait.

‘Were painful’? He’d never been burned before, had he? ...Wait, that was a stupid question. He didn’t remember anything from before waking up in a testing room for the first time, how was he supposed to know if he’d been burned before? Unless he had scars, of course, but he was pretty sure…

He realized abruptly that he hadn’t once gotten a good look at himself since he’d woken up. There weren’t exactly any mirrors, and there weren’t many reflective surfaces. All he’d caught from the glimpses in portals was a head of curly dark green hair. He didn’t even know what his own face looked like.

The room he was in didn’t exactly have any portal surfaces though, and neither did the room with the couches, so he was out of luck until the next set of tests. He hoped he remembered when he next woke up.

\--------

The voices had faded back to whispers. “Let the boy rest… His trials aren’t over yet…”

\--------

He woke up slowly to the cool floor beneath him this time. When he finally woke up enough and got his bearings, he realized he was alone, with no other person in sight.

“Hello, subject 9-MI. I’d say it was nice to see you, but I’d be lying.” He looked around in confusion for a moment before realizing it was the voice from previous tests. Usually, she’d just tell them good job for finishing the tests, but he had only just woken up. He hadn’t even grabbed the portal gun yet.

“Today, you’re going to be doing a… slightly different kind of test.” A whiteboard rose from the floor, with a singular dry-erase pen. He felt his hands twitch at the phantom memory of scribbling down rapid fire notes on… Something.

“I want to see exactly what you think of your testing partners. Personalities, powers, behaviors, anything and everything you can think of.” The floor surrounding him and the whiteboard started to slide away. “Of course, if you don’t meet the requirements. Well, let's just say drowning in acid isn’t a particularly pleasant way to go.” The floor finished sliding back to reveal a pit of acid.

Great.

He stumbled up to the board and started writing with tiny strokes, knowing that he needed to fit as much possible information on the board or he was toast. 

He started with BK, on his brash personality, his powerful explosions, and his snappish and short tempered nature. He wrote how he was pretty sure his quirk worked via nitroglycerin-like sweat, and he smelled constantly of burnt sugar because of it. He even mentioned how he didn’t actually know the boy’s numbers and letters because he insisted on leaving the top half of his jumpsuit down. He spared no details.

He moved on quickly to Luggage, his seemingly laid back personality that hid his awareness of things, his ability to brainwash someone, his ability to observe things and act on them without a second thought. He talked about how it felt to be under the teen’s quirk, the almost dream-like sensation of it, and how the question hadn’t even needed to be answered directly for him to be pulled under. He mentioned his theory that any kind of impact or injury to the person who was under would bring them back, based on the times when he’d come back after either Luggage lightly punching his arm or him completing a fall. He wrote that his quirk apparently gave him headaches with too much use, and that it would probably stack with every use after.

He talked about how UFO was bubbly but occasionally let a sharper, more determined side shine through, her quirk not quite matching her description of it, her willingness to tackle problems but still rely on others. He mentioned how her quirk felt less like floating and more gravity as a force had just stopped acting on him, and how it stopped objects that were flying through the air with a single tap. He threw in some ideas on how the girl might have a weight limit on objects being held by her quirk, and how it apparently made her nauseous to use on herself.

He didn’t let himself stop writing until he’d filled both sides of the whiteboard with tiny hand written notes and theories. He hadn't realized that he’d been muttering until he clicked his jaw shut. As soon as he capped the pen and set it down on the whiteboard, it started retracting down into the floor.

He felt the nervous energy from the start come back in full force. Either he did well and didn’t get dumped into a pit of acid, or he did poorly and did get dumped into a pit of acid.

“Congratulations, subject 9-MI. You somehow managed to cover just enough of my observations to impress me. And here I was hoping to hear your screams as you fell into my lovely pit of acid. Oh well. A deal is a deal.” The floor slid back into place, and the door opened, revealing an elevator hall. That was it? Just some writing?

“If you would rather do some more, what did subject 7-SH call them? ‘Death-trap tests?’ That can certainly be arranged.” He rapidly shook his head. “Alright then. Enjoy your little break.”

He stumbled into the elevators, his knees shaking like jelly. Despite the fact that other tests had been physically worse, this one left him shaken with the feeling of helplessness. His life had been entirely at the voice’s whim, without even the illusion of chance or choice to it like there had been in previous tests. 

She’d been disappointed when he’d passed her little test. That felt less than surprising, but the thought that he’d apparently only just passed it made him worried for Luggage, BK and UFO. Were they doing the same test? How’d they do? Were they still doing it?

He stepped into the room with the couches and promptly curled into the loose ball on one of them. He wasn’t tired yet, and he was too stressed thinking about his friends to even entertain the idea of doing anything else. Not that there was anything to do anyways.

\--------

At some point, he must’ve fallen asleep on the couch, because he awoke to the sound of someone entering the room. BK entered, looking like he’d just sprinted a marathon in 80 degree heat, and made his beeline for the water as always. Luggage and UFO followed soon after, looking in a similar state. Both of them had copied BK’s fashion of tying their jumpsuit tops around their waists, and were also rapidly chugging water over at the counter with BK.

He waited for them to all finish drinking their water, BK stalking off as always as soon as he was done, before saying, “Uh, welcome back?”

Luggage and UFO spun to face him, disbelief and then relief mirrored on each other's faces.

Luggage beat UFO to the punch, but only just. “Dude! We thought you were dead! The voice mentioned something about you taking a ‘special test’ and we all thought you were a goner!” UFO nodded rapidly in agreement.

UFO started firing off rapid fire questions, faster than he could actually answer them. “How’d you survive it? What’d she make you do? Were there more pits? Did she try and crush you with spike plates? That was a new one for us today, the spike plates. Barely got past that one thanks to Blasty-”

“Woah, nothing like that!” Luggage tilted his head almost imperceptibly, and UFO did the same, though much more perceptibly.

“What’d you do then?”

“Uh…” Would mentioning he had to analyze his friends be weird? It’d probably be weird, yeah okay. “Basically a high risk analysis? Either I did a satisfactory job or I got dropped into a pit of acid. I just barely passed...”

UFO scrunched her nose. “On the one hand, that sounds way easier than sprinting through spikes and acid waterfalls. On the other hand, I’m not confident enough in my abilities of analysis to satisfy the evil robotic sound voice.”

Luggage snorted. “Ha! You and me both, floaty girl.”

9-MI couldn’t hold back his own quiet laugh. “Hey, I’m sure you both would have been fine. I'm not a prodigy at analysis or anything.”

“Sure, says Mr. Figured out we were probably kidnapped and thought it was obvious when it really wasn’t,” Luggage snarked.

“To be fair! It really was a simple deduction!”

“Sure, sure. Lets just hope the rest of us don’t get pulled for that kind of test, huh?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! We might see more of Glados soon :)


	5. Test of Observation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which theres a number of death trap tests, and one that somehow more stressful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This was difficult to write, but I hope you enjoy it! As always, its mostly unedited, so if you spot a mistake please let me know!

9-MI woke up, again, on the cool floor of a testing room. What was different this time, was the sound of more than one person in the room.

His eyes snapped open as he sat up and took in the scene around him. Nearby were Luggage, UFO, and, unsurprisingly screaming at the portal gun again was BK. Luggage glanced over at the sudden movement of him sitting up, and gave a sigh of relief. Probably because now the non-screaming people outnumbered the screaming ones 3 to 1. Or maybe it was because he was the only one who could actually grab the portal gun.

As Luggage helped him to his feet, the voice came through the speakers. “Hello test subjects. I would like to congratulate you all for making it this far through the tests, but that would be going against my dishonesty protocols.” That got BK to turn his screaming profanities to the camera. The green haired boy used this opportunity to grab the portal gun off the podium. It was covered in scorch marks.

“This time, we're going to be doing things a little differently. Three of you will complete a test, and the one of you not testing will be observing and recording everything they notice. Think of it like an essay test from school! Only this time, the consequences will be much, much worse than a bad test grade.” He heard a muttered ‘shit, I jinxed it,’ from Luggage.

“I’ll be nice for this first one.” Two doors opened, one with three lights over the top, and the other with one. “I’ll let you pick who does what for this first one! Don’t take too long now… I might get impatient and pick for you.”

As soon as she finished, all four of them spun to face each other, including BK. 9-MI spoke before anyone else could voice their opinions. “I think UFO should go first.” They all stared at him with blank faces.

“A-ah, it's because the voice is probably going to make the first test the most easily observable. The tests will probably start hard and get easier because it’ll challenge the observer more when they have less information to work with.” More blank faces.

“U-uhm! And I haven't gotten a chance to see UFO’s observation skills since most of our tests didn’t have that as a major element, but! I know that Luggage and BK are pretty decent at it! Not to say you’re bad at it UFO, I’m just saying you’re the only one who’s skill I dunno with this-”

UFO interrupted him before he could spiral into a further tangent. “9, it's fine. Honestly, your points make sense. I can’t say you’re wrong, my observation skills could use work. But does that mean you’d go last, 9?” She tilted her head in question.

He shrugged his shoulders. “I’m pretty sure we only get to pick who goes first, at least from the phrasing the voice used. Anyways, we should hurry, before she makes good on that threat of picking for us.” 

BK popped firecracker sized explosions from his open palms, drawing everyone’s attention to him. “Hold on! Who made you the leader, dweeb!? If anyone should be making the decisions here, it’s me!”

“Oh yeah?” said Luggage, “What would you have us do then, oh mighty leader?”

“Send in UFO to observe for the first test. Hope that green-haired mumble mouth here gets set on the last test so he fails and we never have to see him again.” And without waiting for anyone’s response, he stalked off into the door that had the three lights over top. One of them flickered off as he passed through.

Everyone stared after BK for a moment. UFO was the first to break out of the haze of disbelief. “... So we’re all in agreement then? I got in the observing room first?”

Luggage and 9-MI nodded in agreement, and they split up into the different exits.

\-------

The door slid shut behind them with a hiss. BK was already looking over the test, and failing to find a way to get past it without breaking his legs. Because, unsurprisingly, there were pits. And Acid. And those spike plates Luggage and UFO had mentioned earlier. Great.

He’d known, logically, that the first test was going to be the hardest, but being confronted with multiple places he could die in a single room was a little overwhelming.

\------

He, Luggage, and BK passed through a door, hoping that was the end. Or, at least him and Luggage were. He couldn’t tell what BK was thinking at all. Their clothes were covered in spots from acid splash back and Luggage had scrapes on his knees from not quite making it onto his feet through a portal.

Unfortunately, the door was not an exit to the test, but rather simply a separator for the next part of it. There was more acid, pits, and spike plates. Luggage groaned. “Why!” He didn’t elaborate, but 9-MI got the sentiment.

The voice from the speakers, breaking the norm for once, spoke outside of ‘congratulating’ them. “Oh, human misery. What a sweet, sweet sound to my robotic ears.”

Well, that wasn’t reassuring.

\-------

The door slid open and they hoped that this one would be the exit. BK sighed a breath when he saw the elevator at the end, and Luggage let out a loud ‘FINALLY!’ when he saw it.

The voice echoed from the speakers. “Congratulations on passing the test. I’m surprised you all made it out alive. Though, it did save me the mess of cleaning those spike plates.” Ew.

Ignoring the voice’s sarcasm filled remarks over their survival, 9-MI turned to Luggage. “That was… A Very long test. You know, when you and UFO mentioned spike plates, Luggage, I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Hey man, I’m just glad we didn’t get squished. We barely made it out by the skin of our teeth on that last sprint through.”

BK stepped into the elevator without looking back, and the hiss of air signaled the door closing. The next elevator appeared and Luggage gave a tired wave as he stepped inside. 9-MI let out a sigh as he stepped inside his own.

He wondered who was next for observing?

\-------

9-MI stepped out of the elevator into another testing chamber, joined by UFO and BK. The test looked easier than the previous test, which was a relief, but there was still acid and pits. And he could hear clanging in the distance, so maybe spike plates too.

“I guess Luggage is observing this time?” A nod from UFO assured him that she had come to the same conclusion.

UFO put on a peppy smile and pumped her fist. “Let's get started!”

BK, ignored her and simply headed for the first obstacle, but 9-MI smiled and followed her lead. “Yeah!”

\-------

UFO stood a little ahead of BK and him, who were still staring back at the last almost-deadly obstacle. “...So does anyone have any ideas on how we get past this gigantic tunnel of turrets?”

BK turned to face her with a grin. “Turrets? HELL YES! Bring it!” And then BK was sprinting down the tunnel, explosions ringing through the testing chamber. A few pieces of burned shrapnel flew back past him and UFO, who were still standing and staring, 9-MI occasionally flinching at the explosions.

“Well. That should have been unexpected, but really, BK needs to work on being less predictable.” 9-MI nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, one of these days it's not actually going to be a tunnel of just turrets. Maybe there’d be like, hidden spike plates or something, I dunno.” UFO nodded in agreement.

Without saying another word, they followed after BK’s path of destruction.

\-------

When they finished the test and stumbled through the exit, UFO was covered in an equal amount of acid splashes and scrapes as 9-MI and BK. 

“Congratulations for barely reaching the bare minimum requirements for passing that test. The bare minimum being reaching the exit alive.” 

A beat of silence where everyone caught their breath before conversation started up.

“Well! That could have gone better,” UFO remarked as she slumped against a wall.

“We’re not fucking dead, UFO. Who cares how the fuck we complete the tests as fucking long as theyre completed.” BK groused as he stalked towards the elevator.

UFO sighed. “Well, I was specifically talking about how I almost fell into a pit of acid thinks to you blowing random stuff up, more than once, but I guess you have a point.”

BK stepped into the elevator, snapping, “Shut it!” before it closed and zoomed away.

UFO, to her credit, just snorted. “Pfft, BK has no chill.”

9-MI let some of the tenseness out his shoulders and snickered. “Yeah, he really doesn’t.”

\-------

As he had predicted, the tests were, in fact, getting easier as they went along. The third and final test 9-MI was going to be participating in was even easier than the last. He didn’t hear the distant sound of thunking, so he was pretty sure they were in the clear for spike plates this time, which was nice.

Re-joining them was Luggage, and BK was evidently the one doing the observing. He wasn’t sure how well that would go, but hopefully he would make it through whatever the voice was having him do. Despite him being kind of rude, he’s not sure how he would feel if he survived somehow and someone else didn’t.

“So, I saw BK explode a shit ton of turrets. That was mildly terrifying. He’s got some raw power, huh?”

UFO nodded, tapping her fingers together as she did. “Yeah, but he’s kinda predictable. Anything he can destroy that won’t stop us from completing the test, he will. Almost fell into the acid more than once because he decided to explode something close to me.”

“Yeah, I saw that. Honestly, yikes…” The purple haired boy turned to face towards the test. More Pits. “Well, let's get this test over with. Hopefully with less acid holes in our jumpsuits this time.” 

9-MI glanced down at the other’s jumpsuits and noted that there were a not-insignificant number of holes, and that none of them had disappeared from earlier. Well, there goes his self-healing fabric theory…

UFO nodded and started towards the test, Luggage and 9-MI following close behind.

At least this test should be easier than the last.

\------

Instead of stumbling through the door this time, they walked in. 9-MI was exhausted, though, just from doing so many difficult tests in a row, so it was a little more of a trudge than a walk.

Like clockwork, the voice spoke from the speakers. “Congratulations on successfully not passing out from acid fumes and falling into the pits of acid while completing the test.”

Wonderful.

Luggage, ignoring the voice, said, “I guess you’re observing next, huh 9-MI?”

The freckled boy tilted his head in thought. “I mean, presumably? I'm the only one who hasn’t gone yet, so unless the voice decides that she’s done with me, I’ll be watching.”

Luggage gently put a hand on his shoulder. “Good luck man, it was a nightmare for me.”

UFO pumped a fist. “Yeah! Good luck 9!”

He gave them a thumbs up and stepped into the elevator. He may not know what to expect from this, but he was definitely going to try his best.

\------

He stepped out of the elevator into a room covered wall to wall in monitors. Only four were lit, and they appeared to be displaying footage from the testing chamber. It was a room with a single cube and a button.

Ah. He guessed he was right. The easier the test, the more difficult for the person observing. And this was ridiculously easy for the people testing.

For him, this was going to be a nightmare.

“Hello, test subject 9-MI. Welcome to your observation test. You are going to tell me everything you possibly can, in as much detail, about the people testing from what you observe them doing. If you fail to meet the requirements, well. You remember last time, correct?”

Great, more death threats! As if there weren’t enough of those in the environment of regular testing.

Rather than responding with snark to the person who currently and pretty much always decided if they lived or died, he said, “I remember.”

“Good. Your test starts now.” The door into the test chamber slid open, and he started his mumbling stream of observations.

“UF- 13-UO appears hesitant and confused from her steps and facial expressions. 7-SH appears to be confused based on the set of his shoulders. BK appears to be angry, presumably with either how easy the test is or the fact that there's nothing to destroy. 7-SH and 13-UO appear to be nervous of BK’s explosions, though they are masking it and taunting him instead in an attempt to get him to stop yelling. 13-UO appears to be stressed over BK’s threats, but is floating the cube anyways. 13-UO is showing signs of nausea that indicate that shes starting to overuse her quirk.”

“7-SH has brainwashed BK to stop him from screaming for the time being, though he looks to be fighting off a headache that is presumably from quirk overuse. 7-SH appears nervous at having brainwashed BK. 7-SH is pushing the cube into place because 13-UO appears to be too nauseous to do it herself. 7-SH has asked 13-UO to release her quirk.”

“The button has been activated and the door is open, but 7-SH has not released BK from his quirk. He appears to be afraid of BK becoming angry when he does, so he is looking for some way to release it at a distance. 13-UO appears to be offering to snap BK out of it once he has entered the elevator out of concern and confidence that she could handle herself if BK got violent. 7-SH appears hesitant but agrees, likely based on the knowledge that both BK and 13-UO have physical quirks where he does not, and a similar confidence in 13-UO’s skills.”

“7-SH has exited the testing chamber. 13-UO has tapped BK and deactivated 7-SH’s quirk. BK appeared to be disoriented for a moment, but has begun yelling again, though in the vague direction of the elevator as opposed to at 13-UO. BK heads towards the elevator, ignoring 13-UO, presumably because she is not the target of his current ire. BK has exited the test chamber. 13-UO has followed after BK and exited the test chamber.”

“BK appears to have temperament issues and is quick to anger at just about anything that threatens his pride or doesn’t give him the chance to prove himself strong at every opportunity. 13-UO appears to be kind but nervous, willing to help her friends even if there is risk to herself, as demonstrated by her staying back and deactivating 7-SH’s quirk on BK. 7-SH appears to be observant but on edge, and afraid of physical harm to him and his friends, to the point where he uses his quirk to stop any threats of it.”

The screens blinked out, and he snapped out of his mumbling. The voice spoke from around him. “Hmm. Satisfactory. You have passed, but only barely.” There was something int the voice that sounded off, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

The door on the other side of the room slid open. “You may go.” Rather than dilly dally and risk the voice’s ire, he hurried into the elevator.

He hoped Luggage was okay. BK looked like he was going to commit murder when he left the test chamber, but he could also just be reading him wrong. Gosh, he hoped he was reading it wrong.

\------

He walked back into the couch room and saw just UFO and Luggage sitting there on the couch, sipping water morosely. They both lit up upon seeing him come through the door.

UFO bounced up out of her seat. “9! You made it out!”

Luggage leaned forward in his seat, eyes wide and trained on 9-MI. “Dude, we thought you were a goner! That test barely had anything to it, how did you get enough stuff out of that to make it out alive?!”

The green haired boy rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “Uh… I'm not sure? I basically just mumbled the entire time and she said it was ‘satisfactory.’”

Luggage still looked disbelieving. “Dude, whatever you were mumbling must’ve been pretty good then, because that test was over pretty fast, once I brainwashed BK into shutting up.”

“...Just lucky then, I guess?” He laughed nervously. He was still shaky from basically being under direct threat of death if he didn’t perform well enough.

“...Sure, says the kid who was pulled away earlier for an analysis test and survived that too. I'm pretty sure you’re just that smart dude.”

Another nervous laugh. “I’m sure that's not true, I'm not actually all that smart. I'm just good at putting the pieces together.”

Luggage appears to see something, because he abruptly drops his questioning. “Right. Well, let's get you some water. You ran all three of the actual tests, in a row. I'm actually surprised you haven’t collapsed by now. I know I just about did when I got in here.”

“Right, yeah.”

\------

There was a notebook on the bed in his room. There was a note on said notebook with printed text reading ‘Analyze the people around you, and write it down in here. Consider this an ‘On-Going’ test.’

Great. More tests. He just hoped this one didn’t end up with him almost taking a dip in a pit of acid.

\------

His dreams were full of indistinct whispers. They spoke reassurances and of things he’d never seen or heard of before. He wondered if the things they spoke of were real, or just this imagination being overactive while he slept.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Next time we'll be changing things up, hopefully :)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Literally did not edit this at all i just wanted to write somethin :)


End file.
